Madness or motive: A spoiler-free review of ‘You’ season 4, part 1

to the small screen has eyes for malice in more arenas than one.

Now playing a literature professor in London going by Jonathan, Penn Badgley’s Joe acquaints himself with some of the city’s finest — though maybe only in name. A rather messy after party for one of these inherited wealth galas pushes our reformed serial murderer into his own Agatha Christie novel, with the antihero being the main suspect.

Bodies start to pile yet the motives start to branch in this whodunit framed social commentary that’s first half is fresh air breathed into a series susceptible to fatigue from repetition.

By now, violence being enacted on the one percent should be a pretty familiar plot device for any semi-frequent moviegoer. “Parasite’s” Best Picture win four years ago saw slews of cinematic floggings follow, both literal and metaphorical.

Gamble’s episodic iteration of those ideals is one that feels much more malicious, and it’s definitely not accidental.

“Not only are there people who have a ridiculous amount of money and have no idea what’s going on in the world, but they have titles, their families have been wealthy and important since long before the United States was even born,” Gamble said in a recent interview.

It’s often said that the three core motives for murder are money, power and love. While Sera Gamble’s “You” has in seasons past sunk its cleavers into victims of fatal attraction, its return

The shake-up in setting only adds to the unease in the wrench thrown in this season’s formula break, and ultimately seems to lead Joe’s arc to become more inward-focused than seasons past. While still quenching that thirst for mystery — and blood, if that’s your thing — Badgley’s apathetic attitude combined with the very nature of the show as a whole seems to pose questions of necessity, and maybe even appropriateness.

“Great, I get to reacquaint myself with my least favorite genre,” Joe said in a voiceover from this season’s premiere. Fitting enough, as the quote seems to match the energy Joe seems to bring to the suspects surrounding him.

We’re shown early on Joe’s distaste for the kind of people he’s associated himself within the skin of his new identity. While, loyal to the commentary it’s going for, this seems somewhat contrarian given the ethos — or lack thereof — built around Joe’s character for the last three seasons.

It just doesn’t feel like Joe is the person, nor is he ever put in the position, to be realigning anyone’s moral compass.

That being said, the thematic explorations of “You” are never really the sharpest knives in its drawer. Throwing an aggravatingly arrogant anti-hero at the center of his own game makes for pretty fascinating character exploration for Joe.

We’re not immediately pulled into another soon-to-be ex-girlfriend, we’re constantly reminded of his now foreign nature, and it seems that he’s having his own tricks pulled on him this time around. Looking from the other side of that glass opens up Joe’s eyes to a path, maybe undeserved, for his redemption.

This isn’t the first instance of on-screen kill- ers seeking some sort of salvation. Michael C. Hall introduced the idea in Showtime’s “Dexter,” Bill Hader’s “Barry” seems to look for it everywhere he goes and even Evan Peters’s rendition of Jeff reyDahmer seemed to want some looks of sympathy from its audience. It’s a question screenwriters keep posing that seems to have a pretty definitive answer, but Badgley’s reformed killer at least has interesting insight to take away from his role reversal.

He’s pure evil, to be sure, but that doesn’t seem to stop him from wrestling with it. Continually employing the mental gymnastics that comes with being a psychopath starts to spin Joe’s story in a more definitive direction — and maybe an eventual exit.

In an interview earlier this week Penn Badgely was prompted on where Joe’s story takes him from here. For him, it’s a conflict of retribution. The actor stated, “Is justice for Joe death? And who delivers it? Is it prison? Do we want retribution? Do we want him to suffer a painful miserable death? Well, that’s him lowering us to his level, if there’s another season to me, that’s what it’s about.”

It’s an interesting thing to have Joe juggle guilt and pride, and only accelerated and convoluted due to the ethics of those currently around him. Only time and five new episodes on March 9 will tell where Joe’s rampage of passion will take him, but we can only hope he figures himself out a little better along the way.